Shepard looked grimly at himself in the mirror. He rarely shaved, his hair was almost completely gray, and his eyes bore a fire able to burn any world to a crisp. Shepard hadn't been in a battlefield for years, believing that that world was now behind him. Yet he was about to rush in with a brand-new team again, many years older.
'It hasn't been that many years. You've just aged faster due to stress.' Shepard reminded himself. Shepard turned away from the mirror, then looked at the new armor he had. It was opaque black, stealing all light and giving none back. 'This armor is like me.' Shepard thought, putting it on slowly, his experienced hands automatically putting the armor on like he was years younger on the Normandy. 'It steals and gives nothing back. That is why I purchased the armor in this color.'
Shepard walked out and took several guns, thinking 'They will know me by the corpses, blood, and wrecked lives I leave in my wake.' Shepard thought, rubbing the black bags under his eyes. 'Is that how I want to be remembered? No, but if I kill the Illusive Man, I will die knowing I did what I set out to do. No, it isn't right. No, it's not legal. But I don't care anymore.'
Shepard's omni-tool beeped, and he looked at it, reading the sender's name: 'Miranda Lawson.'
Shepard thought about it for a moment, then opened the hologram.
"Hello John." Miranda said. She didn't look like she had aged a day while Shepard now looked fifty, while his body was healthier than some thirty-year-olds.
"Shepard." Shepard said, his voice raspy and deep, like normal.
"Aren't we on a first-name basis?" Miranda asked.
"No we're not, Lawson." Shepard said, seeing the pained look on Miranda's face.
"It's been years, J- Shepard." Miranda said. "You should get over it. I have...mostly."
"I haven't seen our daughter in years." Shepard said.
"I don't trust you enough to let you near my daughter."
"You said 'my daughter.' She's not your daughter. She's our daughter." Shepard said, resisting saying 'not that you would know anything about being born.' Shepard still had some love for Miranda, deep down. He surely couldn't hate her completely. Could he?
"Sorry, I don't trust you around our daughter." Miranda said. "Shepard, it says on the news you killed two batarians."
"Self-defense. If you don't believe me, search for an Alliance Marine named Haku. Late twenties to early thirties. Brown hair, hazel eyes, freckles on her nose. Was kidnapped five years ago, after the Reapers were destroyed." Shepard said, going over Haku's face in his mind. It wasn't hard; her face was becoming a permanent fixture in his head.
"What are you talking about, Shepard?" Miranda asked, worrying about her ex-husband. She knew Shepard was in a dark time, but seeing him shocked her like she was in an electric chair.
"I saved her. The batarians were going to kill her, and I saved her life." Shepard said. "Search her name up in the extranet."
"Don't hang up." Miranda said, and the screen went black for a few moments. Shepard waited, annoyed. A few minutes later Miranda's face filled the screen again. "That's really a Marine, Shepard. Is this a joke? Liara said that you were searching for the Illusive Man, like she did."
"But she quit." Shepard said. "I won't. Haku!"
Haku walked through the door happily. "You're more of a girl than me, Mike!"
"Nuh-uh!" Michael shouted, and began a comeback when the door hissed shut, cutting him off.
"This," Shepard said, rudely putting Haku in front of the screen. "Is Haku."
"Hi." Haku smiled, waving. "I'm, well, Haku. Who're you?"
"Miranda Lawson." Miranda said, a bit confused at what was happening. "John."
"Shepard!" Shepard said angrily.
"Shepard." Miranda said. "You need to quit this."
"What do you care?" Shepard asked, moving the screen to his face once more. Haku stayed in the room, wanting to know how this would end.
"I care about you, Shepard...John. You may think I'm heartless, that I left you a broken-hearted man, but I'm not heartless, and I'm sorry I left you."
"You had me put into a hospital, damn it! You falsified documents, making it seem like I was unstable!"
"I got you out, though."
"No, you didn't! Liara's contacts you did! You were to goddamn busy stealing my daughter from me!" Shepard growled, slamming his fist on a table.
"I didn't steal her, I saved her!" Miranda said, and the anger on Shepard's face fell apart not unlike a mirror that had been smashed. The sound in the room came to an abrupt stop, and Haku realized that this ending wouldn't be pretty, nor would she truly want to stay in the room anymore.
"You said the same thing about Oriana." Shepard said, his face dark.
"Shepard, I didn't mean that." Miranda said, appalled at her own words.
"Your father treated your sister and you like property. He was making you his dynasty. Your father sickened you. I helped you. I repaired the rotten bonds that were severed. I see now I should've been worrying about the bonds between us." Shepard said.
"Shepard, don't you dare-" Miranda began.
"Go to hell." Shepard said, and turned off the omni-tool. Then, without a word, opened the door. "That," Shepard said, looking at Haku, "is what happened to my life in the five years you were enslaved."
Haku began unsurely, stopped, then walked toward Shepard. She gingerly hugged him, then tightened the hug.
"I'm sorry." Haku said.
"It's not your fault. It's-" Shepard began.
"It's not yours, either. From what I've heard, Miranda overreacted. Shep, after this ends, will you quit this lifestyle and go back to normal?"
"I doubt there's a turning point. If there is, however, I passed it."
"Then I'll help you back to it."
Haku began to walk off when she heard Shepard mutter two words that made her nearly cry:
"Thank you."