Cheaters for the Damned – by an unknown Musician

"Commander?" Joker questioned softly. She shook her head before turning to the Councilor and Admiral.

"Protheans?" Kaidan questioned. "But how?"

"The Reapers altered them," Samara answered. "Made them into the Collectors."

"So that's what happened to them," Anderson rubbing his chin.

Shepard's jaw tensed at the casual tone. A whole race enslaved and destroyed and Anderson made it seem like nothing. She began to wonder who really changed over the last two years, her or them. Joker seemed to figure out what she was thinking and reached out to lightly touch her fingers as she began to pace. Pausing she looked at her pilot. He gave her a brief grin. She ran a hand through her hair with a sigh. Nodding to Joker, she silently told him she was alright.

"Anything else you need from us sir?" Shepard asked feeling a bit tired from everything.

Anderson looked at her and saw the slight hunch in her form. He smiled sadly. "That is all Shepard, I have much to discuss with the Alliance Brass."

"I'm sure you do," Joker murmured as he turned to walk out. "Come on Shepard, you promised me a drink for coming here."

"Yes! God forbid you leave that leather seat." Shepard said as she waved to Anderson as they headed out.

Garrus fell in line behind Shepard with Samara. "Just be glad he gets out of it to take showers Shepard." She snorted in amusement as they walked out of the Councilor's office. Once in the lobby she glanced back to make sure Kaidan wasn't following.

"Did you do it Kasumi?" She asked.

The thief let down her cloak as she appeared standing next to Samara. "Everything is in place Shep!" She said with a grin. "I even added my own little device to that Staff Commander." Shepard nodded before turning to continue walking.

"What reason do you have to spy on them Shepard?" Samara asked as they followed her.

"Because the Alliance will still think I'm Cerberus that's why." She answered as she stopped by a statue and leaned against the railing. "If I am right, they will set up spies in the Citadel to watch us. Most like Commander Alenko and people from his crew. Alma has already forwarded the personnel files to EDI so we can know who is watching us."

"Are you sure this is the right play?" Joker asked.

"If we don't do it, Wolf will." Shepard crossed her arms. "And he is more vicious in his attack than I am. He'll hunt then attack, where as I will hunt and blackmail. I prefer to keep my upper hand."

"Remind me not to get on your bad side," Garrus said.

"Don't get on my bad side." Shepard replied with a grin.

"Funny," The turian answered, crossing his arms in a similar fashion as her.

"So what do we do if we spot our friendly neighborhood shadows?" Joker asked.

The Commander tilted her head back to look up. She didn't really want to harm any of the follows, but she needed to get them away from her crew. Sighing she shook her head. "Nothing for now," Shepard answered.

"We are just going to let them tail us?" The pilot asked incredulously.

Shepard nodded. "It's all we can now, unless you want Wolf to spill some blood in our favor?"

Joker laughed hesitantly. "Ah, no…I'm good."

Garrus shook his head. "I'll go back and tell the rest of the crew." He said. He stared at Shepard, his mandibles fluttering a bit. "Will you be okay?"

"I can handle myself Garrus, take the funny one with you back to the Normandy." She answered.

"Aw Commander, I'm glad you think I'm funny." Joker said as he turned to follow Garrus.

"Someone has to make you feel good about yourself," Kasumi answered earning a glare from the pilot. Shepard grinned and looked at Samara.

"Your oath to me is done Samara, you can go back to Asari Space if you wish."

The asari looked at her with a calculating gaze. She knew her oath the human was over but she also knew that Shepard was going against a greater evil than before. "I would like to stay, if it is alright with you Commander."

"You are welcome to do as you wish Samara," Shepard said with a smile.

The justicar nodded and gazed at Shepard with a slight frown. "I do have one question…your biotics."

"Will be explained," Shepard said returning the frown. "I wanted to keep this away from Miranda and Jacob as long as I could."

"You still do not trust them." The asari stated.

Shepard shook her head. "Miranda was too close the Illusive Man for me to trust her fully."

"Not only that, but both of them have been acting peculiar lately." Kasumi added. "More isolated than before."

Samara nodded again in understanding. "If it is not too much trouble, I will return to the Normandy as soon as I gain some provisions."

"See you Samara," Shepard said as she lifted her hand a bit. The asari turned and walked off disappearing into the financial area.

Kasumi put her hand on her hip and cocked an eyebrow at Shepard. "So are you going to tell them that you are the Fox from White Lotus?"

"Figured you'd find out first," Shepard said as she pushed off the railing. "What do you want to know?"

"Nothing," The thief said. "Any information I want will come out in the end."

"That's what I'm afraid of…"

Anderson looked at Hackett with a serious expression. "Do you trust them?" Kaidan jerked as he looked at the two higher ups. They can't be serious.

"Cerberus has been known to manipulate audio and video files before." Hackett said. "We will need someone to watch them." As he said this the older man's eyes turned to Alenko's.

"Excuse me sir," Kaidan started. "But you can't honestly mean you doubt them. There is too much evidence to claim otherwise."

"Commander Alenko, there are many things at play here," Anderson said. "Two of them being powerful organizations that have their focus on Shepard."

"If you don't mind me asking," The Commander said. "The other day it seemed like you both knew the leader of the White Lotus."

Hackett looked at the Councilor. Anderson nodded to the man and Hackett began to explain. "Wolf use to be apart of the Alliance," The Admiral said. "But even while he was in the Alliance, he had power over a group of people who weren't named at the time."

"He was Alliance?" Kaidan's eyebrows rose.

"N7 actually," Anderson said. "He graduated the same time as Shepard, so it's natural that they would keep in contact." The Councilor stood up and went to the balcony and looked out on the Presidium. "There was a bit of confusion when Akuze and the Blitz happened, because Wolf never took off his helmet, so when Shepard gained popularity they thought she was there. It was after the Blitz that Wolf decided to cut connection to the Alliance and take full leadership of White Lotus. It was agreed from the Higher Ups that Shepard was allowed to seal his files. Because of circumstances, she is the only one who can open them too."

Kaidan frowned in confusion. He didn't understand that but didn't say anything about it. "What can you tell me about White Lotus?"

"For a while they did a lot of jobs the Alliance couldn't be connected to," Hackett said. "Sometime during the mission with Saren, White Lotus completely broke off from the military. They were claiming we weren't doing enough to help the galaxy. At that point Shepard had become a Spectre. She wasn't about to put Wolf on the spot."

"She was protecting him?"

"Yes," Hackett said. "When we heard White Lotus had moved into Terminus Space, we decided that we didn't need to worry about them any longer."

"Didn't you worry about him selling military secrets?" The younger man asked. "Or using them to rule the galaxy?"

The Admiral shook his head. "Shepard swore she'd kill Wolf herself if he did that. And because she was still with the Alliance, he kept those secrets to himself." He waved his hand. "What you need to understand is; Shepard and Wolf are two sides of the same coin. Some of their beliefs will be the same, but others aren't."

"It wasn't until we saw Wolf at Shepard's funeral, that we knew he was angry." Anderson said as he turned to look at Kaidan. "Wolf's a biotic, a Vanguard, a powerful one at that. If he wanted to, he could have killed everyone at the funeral without a second thought." The Councilor ran a hand over his head. "I tried to talk to him, but he was being difficult. He claimed we were sullying Shepard's name. Said there wasn't a top brass man there that gave a damn about her. He said that her funeral should have been just the crew alone, if any at all."

Kaidan didn't know what surprised him more, the fact that Wolf shared his sentiments or the fact he didn't do anything about it.

"He told me the Council was lucky Shepard saved them," The dark skinned man continued. "For if she hadn't, he would have forced a coup with the White Lotus."

"Does Wolf like to make it known he's not one for authority?' The Commander asked.

Anderson chuckled. "Yes he does. He also threatened us," He pointed to Hackett and himself. "More than once, told us to keep Alliance out of Terminus space." He turned to look at Kaidan in the eye. "The only time he allowed any Alliance into the Terminus is when the Normandy fell."

"How did he… "

"According to your report, you saw Shepard sending out a beacon right?" Hackett cut him off. Kaidan nodded. "The Alliance never received a beacon from the Normandy Commander."

His eyes widened as he sucked in a breath. "That can't be…"

"Did you ever wonder why the 'Alliance' got there so quickly?" Anderson using finger quotes as he spoke. "Or why the man in charge was wearing a darken visor and never let anyone of the Normandy see him?"

Hackett decided to take pity on Kaidan seeing him in shock. "Shepard never sent the distress signal to the Alliance she sent it to the White Lotus in the area. She knew that if she sent it to the Alliance that it would take to long for us to reach the Terminus to get to you." He took a breath. "Because Wolf was knowledgeable about Alliance protocol he was able to disguise his ship as well as inform his crew on how to act."

"He was able to pretend he was an Alliance ship on the edge of Terminus space," Kaidan said in a low voice. "But they had to know Shepard was dead, why would they continue to help us?"

"Wolf sent us a message after the crew got transferred to the Fifth Fleet." Anderson answered. "He told us if we enter Terminus space again, that he would personally shoot down the ship that we couldn't hide behind Shepard anymore."

The Staff Commander ran a hand through his hair. "How was I able to pass into Horizon?"

"Cerberus," Anderson answered. "Wolf found out what they were doing with Shepard, set out to find her, but couldn't. He then found out that Cerberus was leaking information to the Alliance in order for us to send you out to Horizon. He said the Collectors were targeting Shepard in general, more specifically trying to get ways to get to her."

"So you sent me as bait?" Kaidan narrowed his eyes. Both men were quiet, not denying his accusation.

"There was no one better suited to go Commander Alenko," Admiral Hackett replied confidently.

"I don't believe that," He answered. "How do you know Cerberus leaked the information to the Alliance?"

"We didn't," Anderson said. "We just found out after reading the reports Shepard gave us. She explained how she questioned the Illusive Man on it and he confessed. It was one of many questionable acts she called him out on."

Kaidan rubbed his forehead as a migraine started to grow.

"It wasn't as if you weren't watched Alenko," Hackett said gaining the younger man's attention. "Here, this should explain why you were spared on Horizon." The Admiral sent a message to Kaidan. "It should also explain a bit about how connected the White Lotus is." The Commander opened his omni-tool and looked at the message. His jaw dropped as he read it.

'Hackett,

You claim Cerberus is the enemy, but if they leak information you run into it? So much for Alliance intel. Be grateful I didn't follow through with my threat Admiral. If anyone else other than the Former Lieutenant of the Normandy was on that ship, it would be burning right now.

I have already set up safety measures for Alenko. I will not tolerate letting her former Lieutenant die because of your ignorance. The White Lotus is watching the Alliance now. Don't make me act Hackett, you won't like the results.

-Wolf of the White Lotus'

The Staff Commander looked up. "There's a White Lotus leak in the Alliance and you haven't done anything?"

"You don't seem to understand Commander, we would not be able to figure out who the leak is." Hackett answered. "The White Lotus spies are more effective than the STG."

"A spy from the White Lotus is less to worry about then a spy from Cerberus," Anderson explained further. "Those in the White Lotus are insanely loyal to Wolf. The group is still relatively small compared to the others, but they rather die that betray their leader. Wolf won't use his intel unless provoked. He just likes to have back up plans for the just-in-case…"

"He likes to cover all his bases." Hackett added. "But he can be trusted."

Staff Commander Kaidan didn't know what was more disturbing: the fact that there was a spy in the Alliance or that they trusted a man from a gang. But he knew one thing. Whatever relationship the Alliance had with Wolf, it is linked through Shepard. "What does it mean that he is here, in Citadel Space? And that he knows Shepard is alive?"

Anderson slowly walked over to his desk and sat down. "Wolf won't impede on Shepard trying to stop the Reapers. But he will stop Alliance and Council interference from stopping or questioning her. He will keep White Lotus from being affiliated with her, meaning he will use one of the front companies he had set up to fund her." The man turned as he leaned his hands on his desk. "We need to make sure they aren't planning anything too dangerous."

"Alenko, while they are here I want you and the crew of the SSV Piedmont to watch over Shepard and the Normandy. Make sure they don't know you are following them." Hackett said.

Kaidan frowned but nodded. Standing up, he saluted his superiors before leaving to gather the crew and tell them.

Hackett watched him leave before turning to Anderson. "We can't allow Shepard to team up with Wolf."

Anderson glanced at Hackett as he sat down not saying anything.

"David…" The Admiral leaned forward. "This is the right move."

"I hope you are right Steven, I hope you are right."